RECESSION :EXPERTS PROFFER SOLUTIONS AT HUBERT HUMPHREYS
DAY
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU.
HUBERT HUMPHREY WAS A FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Experts from various sectors of the nation’s economy had
been making
series of vital
comments that could help move the nation out of the economic lock jam it has
found itself.
While speaking to a cross section of stake holders at the
2016 edition of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program organized by the Public
Affairs Edition of the United states Consulate ,The Consul General,Mr F. John Bray
said the theme for this years event :The Challenges and opportunities of
managing a recessionary economy,The American experience could not have come at
a better time than this.
He described recession as a significant decrease in economic activity spread over more than
six months in a nation ‘s productive life.
He assured that since 1790,the United States of America has
had at least 47 different recessions but it has managed through it all as it has
survived them .
He recalled that various circles in their economy in areas
like Agriculture ,banking, health care had contributed to the downturn they
have had in the past with its impact felt elsewhere.
He enjoined that one of the greatest joys to recession is
that it was always a period that the government usually does not have any form
of choice but to listen to its people
His words:”over two centuries,United States of America
economy has changed beyond recognition ,there has been so many swings between
protective barriers ,there was a time when eight in every ten American lived on
there farms and this was before George
Washington took over”
“Seven years later,United States of America was divided into
Industrial North and Agricultural South and it was at this point that the
industries began to contribute more to the Gross Domestic Product”
“Farmers at some point in 1870 to 1890 fought death in fact
before the Republican and the Democratic Party we had the populist party and
they helped to push popular agenda of the people at the time”
“After ,we came out of this period,we went into the world
war one but at the end our economy flourished
and when Roosevelt was elected into office he launched programs that
helped to halt the banking crisis,create employment and he got elected four
more times”
“a number of his initiatives are still very relevant till
today,in the wake of world war two the
United States of America agreed to a monetary system that led to the creation
of the World Bank,the International Monetary Fund and even the World Trade Organization “
He explained that tax cuts and deregulation embarked upon by
Reagan helped to boost revenues but it increased the debt profile of the nation
as there were also a lot of gap between the rich and the average American at
the time.
He pointed out that in 2000 ,the dotcom bubble busted and
this followed another round of recession in 2007 with the financial markets being
worst hit at the time.
He added that thanks to the resilience of the people of
America ,he was happy to say today that they have a robust economy once again.
In doing a postmortem of his contribution to the discourse
,the career diplomat added that the monetary and fiscal policies adopted by his
country had helped to get America out of the woods ,with the aforementioned hotly debated by the
duo of Mrs Hillary Clinton and newly elected President,Mr Donald Trump severally
during the debates before the polls recently.
He insisted that what Nigeria can learn from their own experience
is that there was really know single way of fixing the economic nightmare but
quickly added that till date ,America enjoys the mileage of being the number
one investment destination in the world for business men because they make
things easy for them ,the rule of law works and businesses will be treated fairly
by stakeholders.
The President of the Nigerian –America Chamber of Commerce
,Chief Olabimtan Famutimi said to the audience that the issue of managing an
economy in a period of recession was becoming a recurring decimal as he had discussed
the same issue prior to joining the forum at another event on the same day.
He pointed out that in 238 years of the United States of
America’s national life it had spent at
least 87 years cumulatively in recession.
He took a swipe at the political class saying that the
recession we were going through was self inflicted.
In his own assessment, Dr Ayodele Olalekan Teriba,Chief
Executive Officer ,of Economic
Associates while explaining to the audience said the current source of Nigeria’s
sorrow was due to our commodity glut as most of them had depressed prices due to unexpected increases in supply aside
from while using the economic success
report of the U.S.A.China,Japan and India to push his arguments on the state of
the economy.
Dr Teriba urged the nation to try to harness the beauty of diaspora
remittance using the bond option in the stock market which he knows will buoy
the economy instead.
He picked holes in the economy saying there was no way
Nigeria was not going to have challenges with its focus on oil alone and asked for
it to now focus on building its exports potentials.
He noted that if we undertook external adjustments ,the prospects
of boosting exports input will take time to be seen but that of non -oil
exports was very promising .
His Words:”There is the commodity glut and the liquidity
glut that nations like India and China ,Japan have capitalized on to push themselves
up the ladder ,for Nigeria to be really great then the state must reform the
economy so in such a way that they loosen their hold on certain monopolies in
the area of infrastructure just like we did in telecommunications in early 2000”
In her own contributions,Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie ,Senior
Lecturer ,Entrepreneurship ,Lagos Business School said she was not worked up
over the recession as she saw it as a period for the nation to re-build in
areas it did not focus on before now.
She said that it was high time Nigerians take the culture of
hard work very seriously as the only reasons why people chose to buy foreign
products before now was because they wanted quality at all times.
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